Page 1569 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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MS MacDONALD: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, you have talked about the hard work of nurses. Could you advise the Assembly how the excellent work of our nurses is recognised apart from through the EBA process?
MS GALLAGHER: The government recognises that the core recognition of nurses is through their conditions of employment, which is why it has been so important to deliver an agreement that will benefit nurses as well as the government. It really has been a win-win to deliver this agreement—not only for nurses but for us as well in terms of how we manage the ever-increasing pressures on the health system.
The agreement now will have to go through the new industrial relations process. It will have to be checked by the Workplace Authority for any necessary evils that it might contain, such as talking to a union official. It will have to go through to make sure it has got nothing offensive.
Mr Mulcahy: It will go through the fairness test, won’t it?
MS GALLAGHER: It will now. It will now that there is a fairness test.
Mr Mulcahy: Introduced by the Liberal government.
MS GALLAGHER: A cave-in by the Liberal government for a fairness test. It will be one of the first agreements to go to the new Workplace Authority, which was previously known as the Office of the Employment Advocate. That had a bad taste in everyone’s mouth so we have a new name there. It will make sure that it has no prohibited content, so it does not offend any of the federal government.
Once that check has been done, the final agreement will be made available to nurses and midwives for consideration over a seven-day period. A secret ballot for a formal vote will then be conducted. If the agreement is accepted by the majority of the nurses, which is certainly what the ANF is pushing for, the new agreement will be signed by the parties and then again lodged with the Workplace Authority.
The date of lodgement is the date of effect for the agreement except for specific dates that are specified in the agreement. We are planning to pay our nurses from 23 March, which is the date of the expiration of their previous agreement. Once it goes through that process, we will be able to deliver those pay increases to the nurses. They will receive a 4½ per cent pay increase, which no doubt will be very much welcomed by them.
In relation to other incentives and initiatives that we provide to support nurses not just through EBA processes but throughout the year, we have a number of programs and support mechanisms in place. For example, there are scholarship schemes, which started under the previous government and which we have kept going. We provide $500,000 per annum to assist nurses and midwives to undertake postgraduate studies; $300,000 of this is provided for mental health nursing and $200,000 for all other nurses and midwives. It is a very popular program. Some 76 applications were received for the 2007 scholarship funding compared to 50 in 2004.
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